News

On 30/04/2021, the Commission launched feedback on an amendment to the procedure for changing traditional names in the wine sector. The initiative aims to amend the provisions to rectify this omission. The consultation is open until 28/05/2021, available here.

Orchards and vineyards across Europe suffered in early April due to unusually low temperatures, according to the Joint Research Centre (JRC). The warm March accelerated the inflorescence of many fruits, making the sudden drop in temperature even more destructive. Vineyards and orchards growing stone fruits suffered the most, while to a lesser extent low temperatures damaged pears and apple trees. Frosts have also slowed the growth of winter crops and delayed the planting of spring crops.
More information is available here.

The informal meeting of the Council of Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries will take place on 26/04/2021 in the form of a video conference. The Council will discuss a package of CAP reform measures, ministers will hear information from the Commission on the situation in commodity markets and will address trade-related issues. Under the "AOB" point, the Commission will first present an evaluation of the animal welfare strategy, finally, the German delegation will report on the issue of marking eggs used in the production of food products.

Prior to the forthcoming meetings of the Council of Agriculture Ministers (26/04/2021) and the trilogue on the CAP strategic plans (30/04/2021), a new compromise was presented last week for the allocation of funds for eco-schemes. The budget for eco-schemes is one of the points on which agreement has still not been reached, Parliament insisted on 30% of the envelope for direct payments, while the Council insisted on 20%. Portugal has therefore introduced a new compromise, according to which the budget for eco-schemes in 2022 and 2023 should reach 22% of the envelope of the first pillar, gradually increasing to 25% in 2025. Portugal also warned that if the institutions will not agree on the proposed compromise, the timetable for approving the CAP reform (May-June 2021) could be jeopardized. The next super trilogue on the CAP should take place in the week of 24-28 / 05/2021, and an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Agriculture Ministers during the week of the May super trilogue is not ruled out to allow for a more flexible adjustment of the Council's negotiating mandate.
More information is available here.

Last week, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development discussed with representatives of European farmers the future set-up of the CAP as well as cage farming and the End of the Cage Initiative. The Commissioner said that his statement on 15/04/2021 during a hearing by the EP's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development that the Commission would make every effort to ban cage farming in the EU was a misunderstanding. According to the Commissioner's revised statement, the Commission supports the move towards more sustainable systems, enhanced animal welfare and enriched farming, but not yet a ban on cage farming as such. However, the Commissioner supported cage-free laying hen systems, emphasizing that there are around 4,000 farms in the EU keeping tens of thousands of laying hens in conventional farms (50,000-80,000 / farm) and 8,000 farms keeping around 5,000 laying hens in cage-free systems / business. According to the Commissioner, it is necessary to protect those 8,000 farms with a smaller number of farmed animals, the large farms are not considered by the Commissioner as agricultural enterprises, but as industrial enterprises. The Commissioner also drew attention to the issue of the decline of small and medium-sized agricultural holdings in the EU. According to the Commissioner, the number of these companies has fallen by 4 million in the last ten years, in Poland alone it was 190,000. Therefore, according to the Commissioner, there is a need to support more small farms, in this context he has again criticized large industrial farms, which have access to a large share of European agricultural subsidies.
More information is available here and here.